Blackbird
February 20 – March 21, 2009Written by David Harrower
Directed by David R. Gammons
Scenic Design by Eric Levenson**
Costume Design by Gail Astrid Buckley**
Lighting Design by Jeff Adelberg
Sound Design by Cameron Willard
Stage Management by Chris Lomaka*
Two people who once had a passionate affair meet again fifteen years later in this gripping drama that has left audiences breathless in both London and New York. Guilt, rage and raw emotions run high as the pair recall their relationship and attempt to come to terms with the shattering truth of their abandoned love.
Featuring:
Marianna Bassham*…………………….Una
Bates Wilder*……………………………..Roy
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Who's Who
Cast & Crew
JEFF ADELBERG** (Lighting Design) SpeakEasy: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson; The Motherf**ker with the Hat; Next to Normal; Red; reasons to be pretty; Nine; Body Awareness; Adding Machine: A Musical (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Design); [title of show]; Blackbird; The New Century; The Little Dog Laughed; Fat Pig. Other recent work: The Last Goodbye (The Old Globe); The Lily’s Revenge(American Repertory Theater); John Kuntz’s The Hotel Nepenthe (Huntington Theatre Company’s Emerging America Festival); Middletown, Medea, The Hotel Nepenthe (IRNE Award)(Actors’ Shakespeare Project); Equally Divided (Merrimack Repertory Theatre); The Company We Keep and John Kuntz’sThe Salt Girl (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre); Miracle on 34th Street, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Thoroughly Modern Millie (Stoneham Theatre); A Soft Murder, Noises Off, Oklahoma, Thoroughly Modern Millie (The Boston Conservatory); Boston’s Christmas Revels since 2010. Jeff attended the University of Connecticut and teaches at Boston College. LDJeff.com
MARIANNA BASSHAM* (Claire) SpeakEasy: Blackbird (Elliot Norton Award), Reckless (IRNE Award), and In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play). Other theaters include Commonwealth Shakespeare, Huntington Theatre, The Lyric, New Rep, The Nora, Central Square Theater, Stoneham Theatre, The Gamm Theatre in Rhode Island, and The Actors’ Shakespeare Project where she is a Resident Acting Company member. Film/TV includes Olive Kitteridge, Rubberneck, and Moonrise Kingdom.
PAUL DAIGNEAULT (Producing Artistic Director) was the recipient of the 2014 Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence by the Boston Theater Critics Association. Since founding SpeakEasy in 1992, he has produced over 100 Boston premieres. SpeakEasy directing highlights include: The Color Purple; In the Heights; Xanadu; Next to Normal; Nine; Body Awareness; The Great American Trailer Park Musical; [title of show]; The Savannah Disputation; Jerry Springer – The Opera; The New Century; Some Men; Zanna, Don’t!; Parade (2008 Elliot Norton Award – Outstanding Director, Midsize Company); Almost, Maine; Caroline, or Change; Take Me Out; Company; A Man of No Importance (co-production Súgán); Bat Boy: The Musical (2003 Elliot Norton Award – Outstanding Director, Small Company); Passion; A New Brain; Violet; Songs for a New World; Floyd Collins; Jeffrey; and Love! Valour! Compassion! Regional credits: Grand Hotel and Nine (The Boston Conservatory and Cincinnati Conservatory of Music); Rent, City of Angels, Sunday in the Park with George, and Merrily We Roll Along (The Boston Conservatory); and Into the Woods, Urinetown, and Blue Window (Boston College). Paul is also on the faculty at The Boston Conservatory where he teaches musical theatre and directing. He has also been honored with the Boston College Arts Council’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Achievement in 2007, and served as the 2011-2012 Rev. J. Donald Monan S.J. Professor in Theatre Arts. Outside the theatre, Paul serves on the Boards of the Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center and the ICU Patient & Family Advisory Council at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
DAVID R. GAMMONS (Director) is a director, designer, visual artist, and theatre educator. He is thrilled to return to SpeakEasy Stage, where in previous seasons he has directed the New England premieres of The Whale; The Motherf**ker with the Hat (2013 Elliot Norton Awards for Outstanding Production and Outstanding Actress); Red (2012 Elliot Norton Awards for Outstanding Production and Outstanding Actor); and Blackbird (2009 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Actress). At the Huntington Theatre, David directed a workshop reading of Necessary Monsters as well as John Kuntz’s The Hotel Nepentheas part of the Emerging America Festival. Other recent directing credits include The Comedy of Errors,Medea, The Hotel Nepenthe, The Duchess of Malfi, and Titus Andronicus (2007 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director) for Actors’ Shakespeare Project; Cherry Docs, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, andMy Name is Rachel Corrie at New Repertory Theatre; the World Premieres of Walt McGough’s The Farmand John Kuntz’s The Salt Girl at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre; and The Winter’s Tale as part of the Shakespeare Exploded Festival at the American Repertory Theater. Mr. Gammons has proudly served as the Director of the Theatre Program at Concord Academy for the last fifteen years, where he teaches directing and oversees a company of young performers devoted to developing original experimental work for the stage. Mr. Gammons is a graduate of Harvard University with a degree in Visual and Environmental Studies, and a graduate of the Directing Program of the American Repertory Theater Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University. www.davidrgammons.com.
ANGIE JEPSON (Fight Choreographer) Angie returns to SpeakEasy after having choreographed fights for several SpeakEasy productions including Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and reasons to be pretty. Other Boston-area fight choreography credits include Becoming Cuba and M with the Huntington Theatre Company, Fences with Gloucester Stage Company,Camelot with New Repertory Theatre, and The Haberdasher with Argos Productions. Angie is also an actress and professor in the Boston area and currently teaches at Boston University and Worcester State University.
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